nijat11
Member
1 Chamber, 5 different sponges and filter floss, 2 and 3 chambers 20 kg of seachem matrix (waste of money) and 20 kg of biohome (anohter waste of money).
So I was thinking to remove all that seachem and biohome and just pust sponges.
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So I was thinking to remove all that seachem and biohome and just pust sponges.
nijat11
Member
Bradders
Member
Well, there are different opinions on media. If it were me, I would agree that Matrix and Biohome were not the best in terms of giving you a lot of lovely surface area.
nijat11
Member
I think in planted tanks, media does not play a big role, because plants also act as filter. So not mucf difference in media
Bradders
Member
nijat11
Member
It is 250 liters
Bradders
Member
That is part of what I am trying to find out - in a way.
Bradders
Member
My tank is only 100L. (I am so jealous!)
Bradders
Member
I would also say that I would love for you to try the replacement of matrix etc for foam. And then see how long you go without cleaning it........
ElleDee
Member
You can have bio filtration that doesn't catch suspended particles and you can ha mechanical filtration that doesn't have much surface area for microbes (or gets tossed like filter floss), but foam is both. As long as you have foam, you are in no way discarding mechanical filtration. There's not a problem with that of course - it works great! But it's still mechanically filtering the water.
Bradders
Member
That's a great call out. @ElleDee
So (in my case as a working example), I have a foam-based pre-filter (45PPI), and the main unit is a mix of K1/HEL-X style media and (mostly) foam. I completely agree that foam acts as both biological or mechanical (cleaning frequency dependant) so the question remains - what is the point of the pre-filter?
Bradders
Member
Right, some of us (including irresponsible parents such as I) need to go to bed. 
But I did manage to find (and I did not think it was findable!) some Oase 10 PPI Oase pre-filter foam! (Which looks much like some of the foam in an FX6 - perhaps @Le duke can confirm).
So I am getting set up - and cheers to everyone who has contributed thus far. Yes, it is a bit of a folly. But I also know all of us want to prove @John q wrong anyway. (Just kidding JQ!)
But I did manage to find (and I did not think it was findable!) some Oase 10 PPI Oase pre-filter foam! (Which looks much like some of the foam in an FX6 - perhaps @Le duke can confirm).
So I am getting set up - and cheers to everyone who has contributed thus far. Yes, it is a bit of a folly. But I also know all of us want to prove @John q wrong anyway. (Just kidding JQ!)
nijat11
Member
What is foam?
nijat11
Member
Just googled it, by foam you guys mean sponges, that what I have in my sump in first chamber
Le duke
Member
When I set up my tank, I went down to the local marsh (which is absolutely teeming with life) and filled a small silicone lunch bag halfway up with pond mud.
Took it home, put it in my tank, as it was cycling. A week or two later I noticed tiny little micro fauna. Leeches, worms, ostracods. Literally the things that eat dead plant and animal matter.
I don’t see them as much any more but occasionally I’ll see one up against the glass, 2” down in the substrate, safe from 25 marauding C. panda, aeneus and paleatus. I trust that they are in my canister filter as well.
This may not be for everyone. Some people want a sterile tank, and that’s great.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hi all,
cheers Darrel
Because I want to keep bulky organic matter out of the filter body, all I want in the filter body is ammonia and dissolved oxygen, and dissolved oxygen is the metric that counts.
You run the risk that the filter will clog and levels of dissolved oxygen in the filter will be <"insufficient to maintain nitrification">.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
cheers Darrel
And that is actually a good thing. You have <"complete oxidation"> in the filter, all that means is that your filter could handle a <"much larger bioload"> or, probably more to the point for us, it could deal with a sudden increase in ammonia levels from <"emergency chloramine dosing"> or an unnoticed dead fish.
cheers Darrel
Bradders
Member
Thanks, Darrel, and I agree.
I am wondering (regarding the inner trays remaining 'clean') whether that available capacity would simply just take on the extra load processing (oxidation)if the pre-filter was removed - or, conversely, would it actually just start to clog the main trays as I am "pushing the problem further down the unit". The downside would be having to clean the main unit as it gets clogged; the upside (if the biofiltration is enough to oxidise all that is thrown at it) is that you may not have to open the canister at all for 6 months to a year. Hopefully, some of what I am trying to articulate makes sense!!
Hi all,
I knew I hadn't had the same issues, and I was pretty sure that lack of oxygen was the key, but I wasn't initially quite sure why. Once I'd seen their set-ups, a lot of the pieces started to fall into place, they had warm water (which <"can hold less oxygen">), they didn't <"have any plants">, they were using their filters as syphons and they had some addition of tap water to their tanks.
Normally this was fine, but if an additional ammonia source was added? Dissolved oxygen levels were compromised. <"Dissolved oxygen"> is different from every other parameter, any period of low dissolved oxygen, however short, kills your fish, with everything else you get some warning. The one who used a trickle filter (as well as a canister), the <"late Bob Marklew">, hadn't suffered from the same issues.
cheers Darrel
Certainly does make some sense.
<"Potential clogging"> is always the issue. When I began to talk to <"Plec. keepers"> etc. it became apparent that they sometimes had issues with <"unexpected fish death">, although they were really good fish-keepers (I'm not) and had large capacity filters.
I knew I hadn't had the same issues, and I was pretty sure that lack of oxygen was the key, but I wasn't initially quite sure why. Once I'd seen their set-ups, a lot of the pieces started to fall into place, they had warm water (which <"can hold less oxygen">), they didn't <"have any plants">, they were using their filters as syphons and they had some addition of tap water to their tanks.
Normally this was fine, but if an additional ammonia source was added? Dissolved oxygen levels were compromised. <"Dissolved oxygen"> is different from every other parameter, any period of low dissolved oxygen, however short, kills your fish, with everything else you get some warning. The one who used a trickle filter (as well as a canister), the <"late Bob Marklew">, hadn't suffered from the same issues.
If people are <"really conscientious"> they can successfully have <"filter floss"> and fine sponge in their filters, I'm just not that person.
cheers Darrel
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